Giuseppe Pettine
Giuseppe Pettine (born Giuseppe Antonio Luigi Pettine; in Isernia, Italy, 13 February 1874 – 1966) was an Italian-American concert mandolinist, teacher, and composer.
Early life and career[edit]
Pettine started to study the mandolin with Camille Mastropaolo at a very early age. After the Pettine family emigrated to the United States in 1889 and settled in Providence, Rhode Island, Giuseppe was regarded as a child prodigy of the mandolin because of his great concert appearances. Raffaele Calace (1863–1934) dedicated his First Mandolin Concerto op. 113 to Pettine, his fellow countryman and friend, in honor of his skills and passion for the mandolin.
Pettine was a member of the Big Trio, a trio formed by guitarist William Foden, banjoist Frederick Bacon and Giuseppe Pettine on mandolin. He published a mandolin method book in 1896, and a comprehensive seven-volume tutorial for the mandolin, titled Pettine's Modern Mandolin School.[1] He also became a teacher of the Italian mandolin technique. Members of his school of American mandolinists include William Place Jr. (1889–1959) and Alfonso Balasone (Albert Bellson, 1897–1977). Today the Pettine method is still regarded as one of the most comprehensive works for mandolin ever published.
Mandolin design[edit]
Besides these activities Pettine was concerned with the development and production of fine mandolins. For this he worked in close cooperation with the well-known VEGA musical instrument manufacturers company in Boston, creating the "Giuseppe Pettine Special" model, a soloist mandolin modelled after the modern Neapolitan mandolin designed by the Vinaccia luthier family of Naples.
Praise[edit]
George C. Krick (1871–1962), a well-known guitarist, mandolinist, and contemporary of Pettine, wrote, "The man who undoubtedly has contributed more than anyone else to the American literature of the mandolin is Giuseppe Pettine." And "His concert repertoire includes many of the great violin concertos and original compositions and his concert tours have taken him from Maine to California. Amongst his numerous compositions the Concerto Patetico, for mandolin and piano, is his greatest contribution to mandolin literature."[3]
Pettine died in 1966.